The other side of the coin

How many of us have passed by South City mall everyday? How many of us have shopped there? How many of us know of the harsh realities seen right outside it?
In a commendable manner, a few CRY volunteers come together and show us the other side of the coin...the scene outside Kolkata's latest shopping hub.
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South city- a presentation by CRY volunteers

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Grand Canal Road

“In the last two years my house has been broken 3 times”, recalls the little girl in fear and agony. Kuki aged 10, is one among the several kids whose families live along the numerous illegal homes built along the Grand Canal road just adjacent to the never stopping wheels of the Circular Railways. Well, it would be an irony to reckon the 15 by 6 feet tarpaulin covered mud-structure in which she stays to be actually called as a house. She stays along with her mother and a widowed sister in these drench squatters. “In this age of price-hike it’s impossible for me to find a safe home for these two young girls”, laments her mother. The house is just some 10m away from the train track and the residents have to be extra cautious every time they come out to avoid a mishap. Moreover, the girls are often subjected to sexual harassment where often some drunkard comes on their outskirts and spits evil foul there.

All the 3 members of the family work as domestic maids in the neighborhood apartments dazzling along the riverside.. “Kuki”, expresses her mother, “is presently in her training phase, plus she earns nearly 140 rupees a month and compensates my work when I can’t go due to ill health.”

But the most reveling side of the story is that in-spite of all her suffocation spending dark hours of gloom, she goes to school. Yes she goes to the neighborhood KMC School studying in standard 2 attaining basic elementary education in Bengali, numbers and painting.

“I love drawing different objects of nature” recalls the little girl on whom these object of nature have been rather unfair.
From the school she rushes back straight to join hands with her mother and after two hours of rigorous work she get to eat her first meal of the day with her mother, the quantity of which depends upon the leftover of her employers. Then following her siesta, she undertakes a two hour duel in the name of her own work entrusted with sweeping and washing dishes before returning to accompany her elder sister in her work. The only time she gets to revise her lessons and to her homework is at the dead of the night when the remaining family falls asleep.

“I myself want her to study and change our fortune but first she needs rice in her stomach which we cannot guarantee at present.” It looks clearly evident that Kuki would have to discontinue her studies in a year or so and like many other girls of her community, she would be gripped in the evil of domestic labour rippling all her childhood.

It seems ardent that despite talent, interest and the desire to learn, innumerous kids of these underprivileged families are deprived of education clearly making a blot on our country. What’s even worse is the fact that the entire education system and government policies have failed in all their efforts to provide a cheerful life and quality education rather than such deprivation. Public funded responsive education is the panacea to address such malaise in society. It needs to ensure that every child is able to be in school for the desired number of hours and have a decent life, free from labour and exploitation- not getting devoid of a rightful “childhood”

Piyush Bagaria
IIT-Kharagpur

Schools in Topsia

It was day two of our survey of the KMC schools in Kolkata and we came across another unique story- rather a story clumped of several agonizing stories. Here, we are talking about the Topsia Primary School. Generally, when we think of schools, we think of playgrounds, trained teachers and safe and secure compound. In short, we look for an environment conducive enough to accelerate the learning process. But the students of Topsia Public School have a different story to tell.

“I start work from 5 am in the morning and on returning from school, I have to wash the dishes, look after my brother and cook for the family”, said one of the class II girls Things are pretty much similar for the other students too, teachers claiming that most of them don’t come to school on time as they remain occupied with domestic grinds. On questioning their parents, they kept mum. Who is to be blamed here? The parents who can hardly manage to earn a living for their families or the students for not able to pay attention after hours of hard work every day.

The inhabitants of Topsia mostly belong to the lower class, working as rickshaw pullers, auto drivers, vegetable vendors and in unorganized sectors like rubber factories, with an average income of 2000-2500 rupees per month. With the average family size ranging from 5 to 7, it’s impractical to assume that they can bear for their children’s education. Even if they are willing to admit their child in the schools, the four schools in ward 59 isn’t sufficient to register the 3250 new students every year.

Given the school’s infrastructure, the uninhabitable classrooms, lack of proper sanitation facility coupled with the arduous and tedious nature of jobs they do at home, it will take a lot of effort for a child to rise above all the hurdles and achieve what is desired out of her. With no mid-day meal scheme, the major incentive for them to visit the school seemed missing. The least we can do is mitigate all the odds that are against their fruitful upbringing, or else, we will find half of them in their father’s shoes – working as cheap laborers in the Topsia rubber factory.

Arpan Biswas

CRY Intern

Free Food for the Street Children

Leafing through a business newspaper the other day, I came across a refreshing piece of news that I feel must be shared with all.

According to the article in Business Standard, the NAC (National Advisory Council) approved the provision of free food to the destitute and street children through the establishment of community kitchens. Other decisions taken were to improve the existing services provided under ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) that run Anganwadis as also the need to start new institutions that will provide free food to the needy. Headed by Sonia Gandhi, the council took this decision as part of the Food Security Bill.

An attempt to bring about a change in the existing state of affairs of food security in the country, I see a small step like this going a long way in shaping India’s future. If properly implemented, this will indeed be a welcome change in the field of child rights implementation. A lot of it depends on the method of procurement, how it proposes to distribute and of course, how much the government is willing to invest.

However, the NAC is sure to take a lot of time in finalising the food security Bill, since this will entail a complete reform of the current PDS (Public Distribution System). I just hope that once it is implemented, the results are a lot more effective and far-reaching than those displayed by earlier such legislations. For this, it is imperative that the public come together and with the help of volunteers, act as watchdogs to make this a reality and ensure that this isn’t just another one of the government’s promises made but forgotten.

Here’s hoping for a brighter future!!


Sonam Chamaria.

Initiative during KMC Elections

KMC elections in Kolkata happened in May!!!!! The last 2-3 months, this highly politically charged up city of Kolkata saw endless campaigns and street corner public speeches on popular civic issues and media lapping up all the euphoria.. To our disappointment, very very rare was any mention regarding children, their issues, more so when Kolkata Municipal Corporation runs 268 schools with nearly 30,000 children as students

A group of interns decided to do something on this. They picked up over 30 KMC schools, visited them, interacted with the stakeholders and came up with an assessment report. The group at the same time realised that this report wasn't enough to reach out to all. They came up with this idea of a leaflet in Bangla and Hindi on education provisions- what a school should provide for!

7000 copies of these were distributed by the Topsia Geo PAG volunteers and Interns among the voter population (in areas where they had gone to do the school assessments) to apprise them of their entitlements and making an effort to help them choose their Councillors who will work on these issues.


To have a look at the report as well as the leaflets, go here.